Opening of the Woodcock Brothers Brewing Company

Woodcock Bros. Brewing Co. has completed construction on its second location in North Tonawanda and is set to open for business this morning.

On Thursday, a soft opening was held at the brewery’s new facility at the Wurlitzer Building, where dozens of guests had an opportunity to sample brews and check out the new spaces, which offers a mellow atmosphere with nods to the industrial past of the Wurlitzer building and a full view of the site’s brewing equipment at the front end of the property. 

The brewery’s owners say they’ll be using the brewing equipment at their new facility to play with new beer recipes and see which ones are successful enough to add to their existing product line. 

“This is more of an experimental plant,” said Tim Woodcock, president of the company. “We’ll be doing a lot of one-off beers here. These one-offs will be created here, if they turn out to be very marketable, we’ll send that recipe down to the main plant. We’ll produce the product there and it will be shipped out to our distributers.” 

In addition to making their own beers, Woodcock Brews will be working with BlackBird Cider Works and Savage Winery to round out their drink menu and will rotate guest brewers to add a little variety to their lineup. The restaurant also boasts two wood fire ovens and a full menu of pizzas, sandwiches and entrees. 

Though they opened their first brewery and restaurant in Wilson, the Woodcock brothers say their roots are in North Tonawanda and they’re excited to be able to open up shop not only in the Lumber City, but in a building so central to the city’s history. Mark Woodcock, vice president of the brewery, said he and his brother grew up within a couple of miles of the brewery’s new location. 

“We came over and met the amazing staff and ownership in the Wurlitzer project, saw what they did with Platter’s and it just seemed like a good fit for us,” Mark Woodcock said. “We want to go into historic buildings. If you’ve been to our location in Wilson, it’s a very historic building. It’s just part of our brand, I guess.” 

The $1.3 million project received a bit of help from various local and state economic development agencies. They worked with the Lumber City Development Corp., the Niagara County Industrial Development Agency and Empire State Development to get the ball rolling. The brewery was completed with a $400,000 grant from the state Office of Community Renewal. 

Part of the stipulation of the grant award was job creation. Today, the brewery employees about 40 people, but they are hoping to boost that number to 55 as the summer months draw closer. 

Mayor Arthur Pappas, who was present at Thursday’s soft opening, said that when rumors started to spread that Woodcock Bros. was eyeing an expansion into North Tonawanda, he said he was bombarded with inquires from enthusiastic residents about whether the rumors were true. 

“It’s just amazing to see something so historical … going with today’s date and time, moving ahead,” Pappas said. “We’re making history today, but we’re continuing history on and we’re going into the future with this kind of development here.”